Thank you Eileen for flagging this up, fresh back from Oz, out of local loops. What ever you said sounded intriguing.
From the get go, ordering Tickets, the email that came back was quirky and playful and kind. Also mysterious. Signed We Are Sound. No web site, no pointers to further definitions. I had to look them up this morning and found this:
http://www.we-are-sound.com/gigs
Michael, who of course was up for it even the late last performance, the 9.45 one, and I rocked up at Blythburgh and after a meal walked up the dark narrow lane to the Cathedral in the Marshes. All was quiet around, we were the only ones, no dramatic illumination but a warm reddish glow from the clear story and chancel windows. We quickened our step eager not to be late but we weren’t and opening the great door were greeted by a gathering of smiling youngish confident welcoming people.
‘You do not need your ticket but I can take it from you if you wish’.
No need to scrabble for the front stalls for the best view for there would be no view.
Putting on our ‘sleep masks’, I was aware of a movement of people coming around us. The piano began, mens’ voices from another side began. The first song words were not English, words being immaterial, the sound entered. Even when the English songs began and I heard the words, I forgot them as they washed over my mind and other thoughts like tides came and replaced them. I gave up trying to remember and found some more, took other turnings and meanderings.
The kindness, quirkiness, gentleness, of music and words enveloping all around the huge Gothic arched ancient structure and us – may be a hundred of us – all still all listening . With the eyes, rested no longer doing fly yoga, the ears were open to hear.
We had to have a whisky in the pub afterwards, finding Rodderick on the way. As luck would have it, one of the troupe – the partner of a singer – came and sat with us.
“I do not like to sit alone” she said honestly.
Turns out they are bussed in from Cambridge. A loose group of 100 singing volunteers organised by the small dark haired woman who introduced the event this evening, the one who smiled and played with us, who is a music scholar from Cambridge. The are a new and forming group – since 2016? I will follow with pleasure.
Kalikellett 